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Electricity and gas prices are soaring across Europe, with bills close to double from last year in most European capitals, according to new data from the Household Energy Price Index—a monthly tracker of energy prices for households across 33 European capitals, including the 27 EU member states and several non-members. According to the data collected for the HEPI, natural gas bills in Europe have gone up by as much as 111 percent over the past year, with electricity prices up by an average of 69 percent. Taken together, Euronews calculates these two make for a total 90-percent increase in household...

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is being accused of election interference after threatening to use “tools” if the wrong election result is achieved in Italy’s national elections, set to take place this Sunday, Sept. 25. She added that those same tools are already being used against Hungary and Poland. “We will see the result of the vote in Italy,” said von der Leyen. “If things go in a difficult direction — and I’ve spoken about Hungary and Poland — we have the tools.” Von der Leyen made the comment while responding to a journalist after a talk she...

Heavy fighting erupted in areas near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in Ukraine after Kyiv warned it might have to shut down the plant to avoid a radiation disaster. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in its daily update on Thursday that some villages near the plant were bombed over the past 24 hours by “tanks, mortars, barrel and jet artillery”. Overnight, Russian forces fired rockets and heavy artillery into the nearby town of Nikopol four times, the area’s regional governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, wrote on Telegram, damaging at least 11 houses and other buildings. On Wednesday,...

In terms of intentionally destructive impact on civilization, the fast-escalating energy crisis may be the greatest challenge we face in our lifetimes. World wars have been fought over less. And don't think it will turn out any different this time – unless we radically change course quickly. Surprisingly little is reported about the gravity of the energy crisis raging out of control throughout the Western world. Progressive governments, including our own, have made absurdly counterintuitive and destructive decisions in favor of lofty "green energy" policies that will not become a reality in our lifetime or our children's. What they have...

Germany took emergency measures on June 19, 2022 to secure its energy supply in the face of recent drops in Russian gas deliveries, including a “bitter” use of the most polluting energy, coal. BERLIN—Germany will restart coal-fired power plants and offer incentives for companies to curb natural gas consumption, marking a new step in the economic war between Europe and Russia. Berlin unveiled the measures Sunday after Russia cut gas supplies to Europe last week as it punched back against European sanctions and military support for Ukraine. The steps, part of a broader strategy initiated after the invasion of Ukraine,...

In what should be a new low for women rights in Europe, Austria’s leftist President Alexander van der Bellen has called on “every woman to wear headscarf” in order to fight growing “Islamophobia,” Austrian media reported today. Going by the Austrian media coverage, the otherwise perpetually-offended feminist groups in Austria and Europe have failed to respond to this outrage. “[I]f it goes on like this, with the rampant Islamophobia, a day will come when we will have to ask every woman to wear a headscarf,” President Van der Bellen, Austria’s recently elected Head of the State could be seen saying...

Even by the extraordinary standards of Donald Trump, it was a creepy chat-up line. We were at 30,000ft on Trump’s private jet flying to Florida, when he showed me his white leather double bed. ‘I like beautiful things,’ he purred seductively. ‘That’s why I like you so much.’ This was just one of many revealing and excruciating moments during the two weeks I spent with Trump in 1995 while making a 60-minute profile of him for ITV – a fortnight which started with a charm offensive, but ended in bitterness, recrimination and intimidating letters that only stopped when I threatened...

A majority of adults are obese or overweight in most European Union nations and kids increasingly contributing to make Europe a fat continent, the EU's top public health official said Wednesday. "The numbers are frightening," said EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou. Bad diets based on fatty and sweet ingredients combined with physical laziness by now account for six of the seven top factors leading to bad health, Kyprianou said. The EU Commission has warned governments for years to do something about the culture of flab, but the situation is getting worse. "Everybody has to be blamed — including the authorities,...

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on Friday urged the United States and other foreign nations to withdraw from Iraq in 2008 and said the war had "shattered" America's image abroad. The Iraqi conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and some 3,200 U.S. troops in the past four years, is sapping the power of the United States to peacefully influence other players in the troubled Middle East, he said. "The war with Iraq marked a turning point. It shattered America's image," said Villepin, who opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "It...

When there is a new outrage, I have to download some of my existing outrages, to make room. -- Al Gore CANNES, France -- What he wants you to know is that he has not made a political film. Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" tries to move outside politics and focus on the facts of global warming. Gore says those facts are established, the returns are in, there is almost unanimous scientific agreement about them, and we may have about 10 years before the earth reaches a tipping point from which it cannot recover. He has been traveling the world...

The European Parliament yesterday passed a resolution calling on the United States to close its detention center at its base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The vote took place after most of the Euro-MPs had left for the afternoon, and was passed by 80 votes in favor to 1 against, with one abstaining. However, the Europarliament consists of 732 members, meaning that 650 of them did not vote on the resolution. According to the text, "All the prisoners should receive treatment conforming with international humanitarian legislation, and be tried as soon as possible after a public hearing by a competent, independent,...

Good morning, Madame Chancellor. Here you are, Germany's Angela Merkel, on your first trip to Washington, D.C., preparing for your meeting with President Bush. As you look out of your Blair House window over Lafayette Square toward the White House, consider the historicity of the era: the beginning of Mr. Bush's fifth year leading his country, and the beginning of your first year leading your country in the so-called War on Terror. Or is that the War on Guantanamo Bay? I get them confused. That's because in just about every account of your American trip -- biggish news in Europe...

IT'S OFFICIAL: 2005 WILL BE the newspaper industry's worst year since the last ad industry recession. And things aren't looking much better for next year either, according to a top Wall Street firm's report on newspaper publishing. "Sadly, 2005 is shaping up as the industry's worst year from a revenue growth perspective since the recession impacted 2001-2002 period," says the report from Goldman Sachs, adding a warning that meaningful growth in 2006 is "very unlikely."

Fireworks in Washington, despair around the world The Bush administration is in denial about its disastrous failure in Iraq Robin Cook Friday January 21, 2005 The Guardian Inauguration does not do justice to the exuberant celebrations of this week. Coronation would come closer. Washington ended yesterday with nine official balls. The night before George Bush gave a new spin to the phrase moveable feast by fitting in three separate banquets. He then expended as much ordnance in peppering the sky over the Capitol with fireworks as would get his occupation forces in Iraq through a whole 24 hours. The contrasts...

Germany may seek cap on CEO pay 21 July 2004 BERLIN - The German government is not ruling out legislation to impose limits on salaries and benefits paid to top corporate executives, a justice ministry spokeswoman said Wednesday. German corporate salaries are presently set under a self-governing corporate code, said the spokeswoman. Although German executive salaries are lower than in countries such as the United States there has been growing public anger over benefits enjoyed by CEOs despite three years of German economic stagnation with unemployment over 10 percent. "If progress is not as would be wished over the next...

"Don't misunderestimate me," George W. Bush once famously (perhaps apocryphally) warned when he was running for president. It was a typical Bushism. We know what he meant, though, and the results of the mid-term elections in the United States mean that few would dare to misunderestimate the president's political skills now. He has confounded the pundits' confident predictions of tight results and recounts lasting for weeks, if not months. It was an unexpected triumph for Mr Bush.Whatever view is taken of Mr Bush's policies, he has proved to be a formidable campaigner. Fully capitalising on the prestige of the office...

<p>Old habits die hard. The Western European democracies have a history of tossing the weak off the speeding sled in hopes of appeasing the wolves. Czechoslovakia was tossed off the Anglo-French sled in 1938 to satisfy a ravening Hitler. When the Soviet satellites rose in rebellion in 1953, 1956 and 1968 against the Kremlin tyrants, the bordering Western European democracies did nothing.</p>

Fear of America, and of being left out Sep 5th 2002 From The Economist print edition Why Europe will probably give in over Iraq Get article backgroundEMINENT Americans visiting Europe recently often seem to find themselves in a state of bewilderment, almost as if they had stumbled into some sort of parallel universe. “We in America think of September 11th as an event that changed the world,” says Bill Kristol, editor of the neo-conservative Weekly Standard, “but the Europeans seem to regard it as an event that changed America.” Robert Kagan, author of a much-applauded article on the gulf between...